Willie Nelson News

Marysol Castro has joined ESPN as host of Premier Boxing Champions on ESPN (PBC on ESPN) and will make her debut when the series premieres live in prime time Saturday, July 11, at 9 p.m. ET on ESPN.

July 1, 2015 would have been Willie's 100th birthday. To honor this brilliant songwriter, producer, musician, and to celebrate his life and accomplishments, Blues Heaven Foundation is holding a free concert featuring Chicago's phenomenal blues guitarist, Melvin Taylor & the Taylor Made Band from 5 to 8 p.m. in the Garden Area. 

Ocean Carolina is what happens when a life-long musician stops questioning himself and lets the music unfold on its own.

The Warner Theatre is proud to present the Truck Stop Troubadours: A Tribute to Waylon Jennings & His Outlaw Friends, in the Nancy Marine Studio Theatre tonight, June 27th at 8 pm.

'The Gospel Tradition: In Performance at the White House' showcases an evening of celebration with President and Mrs. Obama at the White House in honor of gospel music and its profound influence on American music.

The Winter Park Playhouse features veteran actress and vocal artist Kate O'Neal in the popular Spotlight Cabaret Series July 15 and 16, 2015.  Ms. O'Neal will premiere her new cabaret, which will feature all genres of music- musical theater, standards, opera, pop and country - including all of the songs she has loved performing and some she has always longed to sing.  Kate will be accompanied by the Playhouse Musical Director, Christopher Leavy.

'There are guys who get up on a stage and make an entire audience of strangers feel comfortable. You do that.'

The Peach Music Festival just announced the final line-up additions for this year's event, including Blues Traveler and Butch Trucks & Very Special Guests Jaimoe, Oteil Burbridge, Marc Quinones, Jack Pearson, Lamar Williams Jr., Bill Evans, Bruce Katz, & Pat Bergeson and also the Ron Holloway Band.

Z2 Entertainment is proud to present Leon Russell with Special Guests at the Boulder Theater on Sunday, August 9th, 2015.

The performance will take place tonight, June 19, at 8:00 p.m. at the Jim Rouse Theatre: 5460 Trumpeter Road, Columbia, MD 21044.

BENEDICTA: Marian Chant from Norcia is Billboard's #1 Classical Traditional Album for the second week in a row.  The Monks success continues following their #1 debut week, where they also bested superstar recording artists such as Taylor Swift and Willie Nelson as the #1 Best-seller at Barnes & Noble.com, #2 Bestseller at Amazon.com and Top 40 on iTunes' overall chart respectively. Competing with pop, rap and country superstars, The Monks' transformative, ethereal music and fascinating human-interest story has struck a chord with consumers and media alike.   BENEDICTA is available now on De Montfort Music & Decca Records/Universal Music Classics.

As the summer festival season heats up, WFUV (90.7 FM/wfuv.org) is on site for more live broadcasts. On June 20-21 WFUV returns to Croton Point Park in Croton-on-Hudson, NY, for Clearwater's 38th annual Great Hudson River Revival. After a Summer Festival Preview at 1 p.m. on Saturday, June 20, the live broadcast begins at 3 p.m. with Los Lobos on the Rainbow Stage, followed by Neko Case. The Saturday broadcast will also include Angelique Kidjo and will conclude with the Citizen Cope Band's set, beginning at approximately 7:45 p.m.

The Columbia Festival of the Arts is pleased to announce its 2015 Summer Festival, featuring diverse free and ticketed events including film, dance, comedy, theatre, art exhibitions, a concert performance by GRAMMY-winning music legends, Blind Boys of Alabama, and a free weekend of outdoor entertainment for the whole family.

Django and Jimmie (Legacy Recordings), the new album collaboration from legendary American artists Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard, is emerging a crossover sensation, entering the Billboard Country Albums chart at #1 while going Top 10 (#7) on the Billboard 200 Bestselling Albums chart.

The Toyota Summer Concert Series at the Pacific Amphitheatre at the 2015 OC Fair features 24 nights of country, pop, reggae, classic rock and comedy offering concertgoers a variety of entertainment options to select from this summer.

It's another busy weekend of new shows opening and many others continuing to delight audiences, with ACT 1's Dog Sees God and Street Theatre Company's Dogfight both opening tonight, while two shows that opened yesterday will continue to treat audiences to some especially wonderful music. Plus, there's a whole slate of shows being performed at Crossville's Cumberland County Playhouse, a revival of Osborne & Epplers' Southern Fried Nuptials down in Woodbury at the Arts Center of Cannon County, and John Chaffin's Cliffhanger enters its final weekend at Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre. Go to the theater, young man (and woman) and let yourself be transported to a whole new world of magic and enchantment!

This summer, Joe's Pub at The Public (425 Lafayette, NYC) welcomes a slate of artists that defy genre but share a core of unadulterated and soulful vocals. The calendar promises a season of outstanding music performances from artists ranging from jazz man Brian Blade, making his singer-songwriter debut, to indie songbird Diane Birch to NPR phenomenon Fantastic Negrito to SXSW success story and mother-son duo Madisen Ward & the Mama Bear.

Today, in a special edition of The Friday Five (on Wednesday), we introduce two actors from The Gaslight Dinner Theatre's upcoming production of A Closer Walk With Patsy Cline: Linda Sue Simmons (my favorite Miss Chattanooga of all time) and Curtis LeMoine-Reed. Directed by Greg Frey, the musical - filled with some of Patsy Cline's best-loved hits that will transport you back to her starry heyday in the 1960s - opens Thursday afternoon at The Renaissance Center in Dickson.

No matter what the calendar says, we're in early summer already - insofar as theater in Tennessee is concerned, at least - and there are four new shows opening this week that should command your attention. Along with a number of shows that are continuing their runs (like John Chaffin's Cliffhanger at Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre), you have plenty of diverse and intriguing onstage offerings to keep you in the relative, air-conditioned comfort of a darkened theater. We've done the necessary research, made the calls to the people-in-the-know and have included the dates, the phone numbers and the websites to make it as easy as possible for you to buy tickets and go show some support for the arts while indulging in the magic of live theater…